During our recent webcam chat (watch the exclusive video above), Jakob Schuh reveals he was drawn to adapt Roald Dahl‘s “Revolting Rhymes” into an animated short because “it has a lot of quite modern themes in it of empowerment and of strong females.” Plus, “it’s a lot of fun to read.” The two-part film retells and intertwines five of the six poems in the book, including modern takes on Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White, the Three Little Pigs, and the Big Bad Wolf. “The more you think about it, the more relevant it becomes.”

Schuh co-directed the film with Jan Lachauer. The pair were influenced by the iconic illustrations of Quentin Blake, whose work is intrinsically linked with that of the author. “We were happy to have them as a base for an adaptation,” Lachauer divulges. “It’s very daunting,” adds Schuh, “because if you love Quentin’s work as much as we do, and you think about adapting it to animation, it becomes clear quite quickly that you don’t want to actually copy his actual style.” Instead, “we wanted to adapt it and honor his work, but not copy it.”

Lachauer and Schuh are both prior Oscar contenders for Best Animated Short: Lachauer for “Room on the Broom” (2012) and Schuh for “The Gruffalo” (2011). “Revolting Rhymes” was recently nominated at the Annie Awards for Best Animated Special Production and was shortlisted for the 2018 Academy Awards.

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